Latest Hard Flooring Trends

Are you looking to update your flooring or to replace your wall-to-wall carpeting with a hard surface? There are lots of choices these days, from hardwood to luxury vinyl to laminate. In today’s trendiest homes, light welcoming surfaces in warm colors are what’s found underfoot.

No matter which hard surface material you choose, it’s not difficult to find a product that aligns with the latest trends. Here are some of the flooring fashion developments showing up in homes of the 2020s.

As Always, Hardwood is Hot

Hardwood floors have been in demand for centuries, and they’re certain to enjoy popularity for centuries more. Nothing quite matches their luxurious look and feel! They last for decades, and even after many years they can be brought back to life with refinishing.

There are both light and dark hardwood floor colors that never go out of style, but it’s hard to match the appeal of light oak. This oak is beautiful au naturel, and it also takes on an assortment of popular hardwood floor colors with great panache. However, it’s the softer and lighter colors that are topping the charts these days!

Another trend is low-sheen coating. A matte floor – and some designers say the more matte the better – has a natural underfoot feel and looks marvelous with many of today’s most popular contemporary designs.

Oak and pine have long been favorites for hardwood flooring, with cherry and maple also finding their way into the mix. Lately, however, the sustainability trend has brought forth a couple new contenders. One of these is cork, which comes in warm and earthy tones, holds up like harder woods and is valued for its acoustic and thermal protection.

Alternatives: Luxury Vinyl and Laminate

Once upon a time, the only way to get the look and feel of hardwood was with hardwood itself. That hasn’t been true for a while now, and it’s becoming less true every year!

Luxury vinyl is waterproof, easy to install, low maintenance and comes in a variety of styles that looks like hardwood (or, if you prefer, like stone). The latest product is rigid core luxury vinyl, or SPC vinyl. The core is a stone-plastic composite and is nearly indestructible! It can be manufactured thinner than the traditional WPC vinyl with its wood-plastic core. Most people find that WPC still comes out on top as far as walking comfort goes.

SPC or WPC, texturing and printing technology is getting better all the time. Manufactures deliver not only wood look vinyl flooring but also a variety of decorative designs that previously weren’t possible with durable flooring.

There’s also laminate, which is no longer a second-choice product with a plastic look and feel. Today’s best laminates are an affordable option that hold their own side-by-side with luxury vinyl! Laminate is a layered composite of compressed wood, and, as with most modern technologies, the fabricators just keep producing better and better wood look laminate flooring.

Fashion Trends in Hard Flooring

Whether the floor is hardwood, vinyl or laminate, the design trends are similar. And why wouldn’t they be, with the manufactured products capable of doing just about anything natural wood can do!

Soft Colors

The key word today in flooring color is light! That means beige, cream, off-white, greige and even gray itself. The grays, however, are warmer, not the cooler industrial grays that enjoyed some currency a few years back.

Light colors make a space appear bigger, more open and more welcoming. In vinyls and laminates, this translates to blond wood-look floors as well as the grays. Still, it’s tough to top the versatility of gray, the way it backdrops every color of decor from blues to greens to bright colors to even black and white!

Though medium and dark brown floors are in today’s minority, they still have their proponents. They’re colors that will never disappear, and they’re often favored by those who seek a cozier feel.

High Variation

Why have just one color when you can have several? A trend in plank flooring is variation of colors so that no two planks are quite the same. It gives the impression of a custom design. Varying the size of planks is common in this style.

Ceruse

Cerusing is a wood finishing technique whereby the grain is highlighted and the background is stained in a contrasting color. It makes for a two-toned look. It can be done with natural wood, and there’s manufactured cerused-look vinyl.

Large planks

Most current floor designers favor long and wide planks. Like light colors, they make a room look bigger! They also produce a cleaner look with fewer seams.

Some vinyl planks have beveled edges to emphasize the delineation between pieces.

Patterns

You can lay out a planked floor in a standard block pattern, and that’s still the most prevalent. However, parquet is a creative choice that sets a floor apart from the ordinary. Herringbone and chevron are interesting alternatives to the rectangular look.

Bleaching

Bleaching, also called blanching, is a technique whereby chemicals are applied to wood to remove some or all of the stain. The result is an ashy took with the grain still visible. It has the character of the original wood but in a different color and style! With vinyl and laminate, there can be a bleached look with the planks right out of the carton!

Whether you’re a hardwood enthusiast or you prefer the affordability and convenience of vinyl and laminate, there’s a flooring that’s just right for your home! The colors, patterns and styles of this season are bound to bring a new level of grace and fashion to your living space!